Through Light and Darkness
by Ananas
Summary: At Hogwarts,so it's tres cool. Based on real emotions, depression, and general disgruntled feelings. Happy stuff too.
1. J'ai dors

Disclaimer: I own the plot as well as most of the characters, not the setting or the HP elements tho... I'm sure you can pick those out for yourself. And, this isn't really a HP fanfic, it's just a story I wanted to write that is conveniently located at Hogwarts. Look for symbolism! (Especially you, Lizzie!)  
  
Too bad "Times New Roman" isn't a way to describe someone's life: regulated, plain, and boring. Well, I suppose some people have that kind of experience, but then who would want to know about them anyway? Granted, everyone has humdrum days where they feel like sleeping for twenty-four hours straight, I know I sure do, but it's the defining moments, critical decisions, and intense emotions a person feels that makes life worth living. Yeah, sure, everyone feels like crap once in a while, but that's no reason to stop doing what you're doing... get over yourself and live your life the way you want to. However, there are some exceptions to this rule, like internal struggles. Who can ever decide something for themselves when they support both sides of the arguement? Well, that's where the rest of the human race comes in, to help and hinder each other while they walk blindly through life, each person in their own little world.  
  
"Oh. My. God!" thought Marina as she scurried down the long hallway with high vaulted ceilings towards her next class. She held several sheets of paper crumpled in her fist, each of which contained various notes she had absentmindedly taken during Transfiguration. Why did I wait until the last minute to study? AGAIN?!  
  
Marina stopped short as she realized she was about to run head on into Katarina, a fellow student and close friend. However, unlike Marina, Katarina was calmly loitering outside of the oaken door, flipping her long strawberry-blonde hair and chatting with the passers-by walking slowly to their destinations.  
  
"Scuse, pardon, thanks!", squeaked Marina as she pushed by the clump of students and into the classroom. Only a few students were in there, including Tom, Jeremy, Ivy, and Calvin. She rushed to her seat, threw down her heavy bag, and began to flatten out her sheets of notes.  
  
"Into a duck...figure-eight...and, no, wait... uhhh...oh a kumquat...." She mumbled indistinct phrases while trying to decipher her scrawl and memorize the information at the same time. "No. Yes, wait, no.... AUGH!!" Marina slammed her fist down on the desk, causing a dull throbbing in her right hand. Oh great, now HE's looking over here too, while I'm making a complete fool of myself...  
  
Jeremy was gazing over curiously at Marina, with a look of slight concern. "Uh... are you..."  
  
"I'M OK!" yelled Marina, which only caused him to look even more alarmed. She turned away to look back at the sheets of wrinkly paper, that were now strewn all over the floor. Fine, now how can this day possibly get any worse?  
  
Katarina strolled in, her usual composed self, and walked towards Marina, still laughing from the conversation she'd just finished with another 5th year.  
  
"Haha... oh, are you alright, Mari? Um, no, I'll get that for you..." She bent over to gather together the papers before the class came in and trampled all over them. She stood up and turned towards Marina, her green eyes full of a confused amusement. "Er, well, good luck on the test, then! Oh yeah, you'll never guess what Tobias said to me just now! He was talking about the time his house elf accidentally set their dog on fire...."  
  
Marina mentally blocked out that useless drivel, and tried to set her mind on the task before her. I bet Kat studied ages ago, why does she have to be so perfect anyway? I don't see what's so great about being great at everything. She thought bitterly. She watched as Katarina took a seat next to Jeremy, and started joking and laughing with him. She was leaning closer to him than Marina would have liked, in fact, she didn't like her talking to him at all! Not like I have a claim on him though. She sighed at that depressing thought and slumped forward in her seat, staring at the papers on her desk but not really seeing them.  
  
"Class, it's time for your test!" Professor McGonagall's voice rang out over the chattering kids. Everyone immediately got silent and looked towards her, knowing that this test was one of the single most important grades they'd ever receive the entire year. "Now, begin!" She waved her wand, and a thick stack of papers appeared on everyone's desk.  
  
Marina closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly opened them again. She looked down at the intimidating mountain of paper and found the first question. "What is the proper procedure for changing an African Bullhog into an exact replica of HMS Titanic?" There was no multiple choice. Marina's eyes widened as she realized, "I am going to FAIL."  
  
- - - - - - - - - - - -  
  
The bell rang, and students from all over the school burst out of their classrooms, relieved and ready for the weekend.  
  
"Hogsmeade, tomorrow!" Said Katarina excitedly as she led Marina to the great hall, who was following sullenly. "Oh, are you worried about that old test? Don't worry, I did pretty bad too..."  
  
Like hell you did, thought Marina, you were the first goddam person finished. "Uh, it's ok. Hey, did Jeremy tell you if he was going?"  
  
"Um, now that you mention it, he and Tobias said they were going to meet up at the Three Broomsticks for a few drinks around two. He said we could come too," she added hastily as she saw the yearning look on Marina's face, then smiled. "You know, if you really like him that much you should talk to him," Katarina said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world (which it was).  
  
Marina looked at her with an incredulous expression, but chose not to voice her exasperation. "Yeah, I know, but..." "NO buts! I'm going to make sure you talk to him tomorrow. Let's go to Herewolf Salon this afternoon, and cut your hair! Then he'll have something to talk to you about, and get his attention. Eh?" Katarina nudged Marina with her elbow and winked. She saw Marina's eyebrows raise. "Oh, come ON. It'll be fun!" And with that, Marina lost any hope of getting out of this and let herself be dragged to the salon.  
  
- - - - - - - - - - - -  
  
Marina sat in the styling chair while Katarina tried to describe to the formidable hairdresser what she wanted.  
  
"Uh, make it cute, but not 'little girl' cute, uh, with layers... and flippy. Yeah, make it flippy. Er, well, just do whatever will make it look best."  
  
The tall, slim, and stylishly dressed hairdresser fingered a lock of Marina's long brown hair, and thought for a while. Finally, she said in a thick Transylvanian accent, "Ve vill make eet short."  
  
"Ok, great, hear that, Mari? Short!" commented Katarina for no apparent reason: Marina was not hard of hearing.  
  
When she was finally finished, the tall woman turned Marina's chair towards the mirror. She stared back at her reflection. He'd better say something about it to me tomorrow. If he doesn't, then guys are denser than I ever thought!  
  
"Woah! You look great!" proclaimed Katarina, looking down enviously at Marina. Her new cut was about shoulder length, with fringed bangs and flipped out at the ends. "I think you're ready for tomorrow."  
  
- - - - - - - - - - - -  
  
[A/N:] Like it? Didn't? Reviews appreciated! Yeah I know, that was really random. But hey, it's only the first chapter, and it's supposed to catch your attention. Did it? 


	2. Caution to the Winds

Disclaimer: See first chapter. Sorry, it was short... and random. It seems shallow now, but it gets deeper. Keep reading and you'll get the picture.

Marina opened her eyes sleepily, and felt the cool breeze from the open window across her face. She yawned, stretched, and looked over to Katarina's bed, which was already empty. Looking around, she spotted a note on the foot of her green and silver-trimmed bedspread. Marina reached down and picked it up, noticed there was no name visible, and called out to her other roommate, "Oi! Ivy! What's this from?"

"Eh? Oh, you're finally awake! Kat left that for you this morning, she said it was important," Ivy shrugged, and turned back to the mirror to brush her hair.

Intrigued, Marina unfolded the crisp parchment, and saw a few lines of Katarina's neat handwriting.

_Sorry, mate, but I got a call from the Ministry this morning, while you were still asleep. I have to go meet up with some important guy, I don't know why yet, though. But I just wanted to remind you that Tobias and Jeremy still want to meet at the Three Broomsticks, at two. Don't keep them waiting!_

_Kat_

Marina felt a pang of nerves as she thought of facing those two alone. She turned to look at the clock on the wall across from her. Its hands seemed to be mocking her, the short one already nearing the brass two. Hurriedly she jumped out of bed and ran to her trunk, pulling out all sorts of clothes. Instead of worrying about what to wear, she blindly pulled on a maroon sweater and mismatched socks. Marina completely forgot about the pants factor: she was still wearing her striped pyjama pants. She ran down the spiral staircase, leaving clothes strewn all over the floor.

"Wait, Marina!" Ivy called from their room, but it was too late. Marina was well on her way to humiliation.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Marina ran into the Great Hall, and had not encountered anyone on her way down. However, as she yanked the door open and rushed in, looking bedraggled, the few scattered people started to snigger. Confused, Marina proceeded to walk to the Slytherin table, with a slight gimp as her body was not fully awake yet. She sat down across from Tom, who was looking intently at an old book and picking at his food.

"Hi, Tom," she breathed, reaching for a plate of scones.

Tom looked up, surveyed her, and chose not to reply. He tilted the book he was holding so she couldn't see what was written in it. Not like she was looking at it, though.

"Uh, ok... So! Why aren't you at Hogsmeade?" Marina continued, a feeble attempt at conversation.

Tom heaved a sigh, slammed the book closed, and glared at Marina like he had murder on his mind. "Are you going to keep talking to me until I answer?" he shot at her.

"UH..." Marina was extremely apprehensive. "I was just trying to be friendly..."

To her surprise, Tom let out a short laugh. "It's ok. I'm just... I don't know. I was testing you." He shrugged.

"Oh, right then, nice to know that you're being honest with me and all," she said.

"Yeah, anytime. Say, you going to finish your crumpet?" He reached out a thin, pale hand and took it before she could answer, then started to get up. His book was not on the table, nor was it anywhere on his person.

"Hey, I was eating that! Wait, do you want to go down to Hogsmeade with me?" It was a perfect opportunity to get to know a guy. He seemed all right, this Tom fellow.

A pained expression crossed his features, but he regained composure and replied, "Sure, I'd like that. But you have to buy me a butterbeer!" It sounded like he truly wanted to go, and seeing as they were both young with a whole afternoon ahead of them, it would be fun.

"Let's go!" She jumped up and started to drag him out of the Great Hall, crumpet and all.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Tobias looked out the window for what seemed like the thousandth time. _Where is she?_ She said she'd be here, but it was already 3:47 and she was nowhere in sight. Jeremy didn't seem to have noticed though. He just kept flipping his shaggy dark brown bangs out of his eyes and laughing at his own jokes.

"Hey, listen to this one, Tobe. Two atoms walked into a bar. One looked sad, so the other asked, 'what's wrong?' and the other atom said, 'I'm missing an electron! I can't find it anywhere!' and the first one asked it, 'are you _sure_?' and the other one replied, 'I'm positive!' HAHAHAHA! Isn't that a good one?" Jeremy proceeded to laugh at his own cleverness, ignoring Tobias's complete silence. He shook his head, successfully keeping his hair out of his eyes for about 10 seconds.

It started to rain outside, the wind picked up and was blowing everything hither and thither. _Maybe she forgot..._ The weather seemed to mirror Tobias's mood, getting more depressed as time went on. "Hey, we don't want to get stuck here when the storm gets worse. Maybe we should go back to Hogwarts."

Jeremy looked as if he'd rather die than be caught in school on a Saturday afternoon. "Don't _worry._ Let's have another butterbeer!"

"Ok, sure," Tobias replied without much enthusiasm as Madame Rosmerta brought another round to their table.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"No _way!_" gushed Marina in response to one of Tom's many fantastic stories. He claimed to have traveled around the world, meeting witches and wizards in the jungles of the Amazon, the deserts of Swaziland, and the tropics of Asia. Although Marina suspected vaguely that these tales couldn't possibly be true, Tom had an aptitude for being very persuasive, and anyway, those doubts were tucked into the farthest corner of her mind. "You really went to Mongolia and conjured a truckload of gnomes to help with their out-of-control zebra population?"

Tom looked somewhat embarrassed. "Well, it was more like a _bushel_ really," he said.

Suddenly, as they were passing Honeyduke's, the rain started to pour down upon them in buckets.

"C'mon, hurry! Let's get inside!" Tom urged as they pushed past the crowd of people all clamoring to go in. Marina almost knocked down an old hag, and she got twice as soaked as she already was to help her inside, apologizing profusely.

"Oh, let me help you! Please, is there anything I can do?" Marina asked with guilt in her voice.

"No. Get away," replied the hag in a raspy voice, who was wrapped tightly in black fabric that covered all of her features except her eyes, which were bright green.

"Um, I think you should leave her alone," whispered Tom, and she turned to face him. They were startlingly close, and were jostled from all sides by the wet bodies pushing to make room for more people. The air in the room was excruciatingly humid, especially in a maroon sweater.

"Maybe we should move away from the door," Marina suggested, and she led Tom over to the checkout counter. Behind it was a door left ajar. Seeing as the room was filling up quickly, Tom motioned to Marina, and pointed to the door. They looked around for a clerk, but he was over by the candy trying to make sure nobody was stealing anything. After seeing the coast was clear, they snuck in and closed the door. Immediately they both started to laugh in relief at the mission they accomplished.

"What do we do now?" Tom whispered in an effort not to be heard by anyone in the store. However, she needn't have bothered, there was enough noise out there to drown out an atomic war.

"I guess we just wait until the rain stops," said Marina, sighing.

"Fun," said Marina as she slid to the floor. He looked up at Marina expectantly. "Sit," he said, and patted the ground next to him. Marina hesitated.

"I want to tell you another story," he said.

"Oh, ok..." she said, and quite clumsily tripped over her pyjama pants trying to get to where he was. She laughed nervously and looked into his eyes, now at his level. They were a cold steel grey, very pensive and deep. Marina blushed and looked down. Tom, however, was still gazing at her intently. Trying to ignore this, she started to speak. "So, about that story..."

"Yeah, let me tell you..." He inched closer, and Marina's heart beat with incredible speed. Their lips touched for a few moments, then she pulled back to look at him. His face was so reassuring and calm in the dim light, so she threw all common sense to the wind and leaned towards him.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

[A/N:] bhwahahahhaha!! Sexual tension! What will happen?!


End file.
